A Tumblr Dedicated To K-Pop! -
Save for Nobody, I never took a liking to any K-Pop. But I know a lot of you did. This guy is tumbling about it and i don’t think he is even in Korea. Madness.
Happy Samgyeopsal Day, y’all! Meat like that deserves its own holiday, even if it is only for marketing purposes.
Korean retailers compete to cut the prices of pork belly as this Wednesday is the day when the country’s farmers promote consumption of the popular dish, dubbed “samgyeopsal.”
March 3 is picked for the event because samgyeopsal, which means three-layered pork in Korean, is commonly served as an evening meal thanks to its taste and low price.Lotte Mart, the nation’s third-largest discount chain with 70 outlets, has prepared 200 tons of pork belly for the Samgyeopsal Day and almost halved its prices at 950 won per 100 grams. (Source)
(via fckyeahkrnfood)
I’m a little miffed that I didn’t know about samgyupsal day. Though odds are very high I ate some on this day last year anyway, so I can’t be too mad. For anyone reading this in Korea, mark May 2nd on your calender to eat duck. As Mr. Kim explained it to me; Fifth month (oh), second day (ee). Oh-ree. Duck. “Undah-stand?”
(via roketship)
Provided there weren’t too many people crowded on them, I rather liked the wild bus rides. It was kind of like you and the driver were engaged in an mildly acknowledged, unspoken game where he would tear-ass all over the city and if he couldn’t knock you over. I learned early on to keep my knees slightly bent and to hold tight on a handle at all times. It was like surfing through the city on a giant mechanical board.
I once asked a co-worker named Fred why he didn’t get a job with a new company. He’d recently married a Korean girl and planned on being in the ROK for quite a while. Fred looked at me for a second and said “I prefer the devil I know to the devil I don’t”.
In news that is not at all shocking, I just got word that the hagwan I worked for went teets-up. An expert from the e-mail….
“…its caused by bad choices and arrogant stubborn foolish management decisions of the last five years. No less than three different teachers and assorted business degree holders had warned them that unless they changed key factors to meet the demands of the new marketplace their business would fail. They kept acting like it was Korea circa 1990. And they always replied with the same derisive laughter, saying, “were professionals, we know what we are doing!” Followed of course by…. Now SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH and get your ASS BACK IN CLASS and make us OUR FUCKING MONEY!
Well they were NOT professionals and they DIDN’T know what they were doing and they PISSED OFF too many students and school principals so when things were really bad, one of those that had been previously fucked over by BCM decided to return the favor.
The Fuckee became the Fucker and reamed BCM-Nowon/Sanggye in the ass. They waited till the worst possible time for BCM then they kicked them in the teeth…. repeatedly.”
To anyone who had the misfortune of landing a job at my old company, this news is not at all surprising. The writing was on the wall long before I set foot in Korea and frankly, I don’t know how they stayed afloat as long as they did.
I take some measure of pride in knowing that I was able to make it through the entire year with this floundering company who treated it’s teachers and students alike as though they were cattle. Of the four people who arrived at the same time as me, I was the only person to finish out the original contract. Sean wised up and found a new, better company. Jared and Jordan re-negotiated for better conditions. Tim, slack jawed dullard that he is, cut and run about a month in. Anthony, a guy I never talked about, arrived in February and was done by July.
It might have been foolish for me to tough it out, but I was able to endure quite a lot more than I ever thought I might. Endure. Koreans use that word a lot. It seems engrained in them to grit their teeth and get through life, no matter how bad the situation might be. I danced with the devil for a year and I endured. I like the way that sounds.
In this picture you can see my old apartment and Mr. Kim’s and Mr. Park’s restaurants. My Hangook ‘hood.
Did I mention Mr. Kim called me on Christmas? I’m not sure if I did. Had an incoming call from an odd looking number I didn’t recognize. I answered, which is kind of odd cause normally I wouldn’t have taken a call from a number I don’t know. After a brief pause I heard, “Uh, Tyee? Oh, Tyee, too much missee!” Mr. fuckin’ Kim. I couldn’t believe it. We only talked for a second cause his English isn’t good enough that we could have an extended phone conversation, but I made sure to tell him the Korean food in Riverside is “numbah 10!” (that’s a bad thing) compared to his.
It’s raining in southern California and I really want some makgeolli. I do not want to spend $12 on a bottle of it though and the women working at the store where I have been buying kimchi didn’t know where I could get any. I’m gonna have to go back to Seoul just for the magkeolli soaked rainy days.
Let me be clear and state for the record I don’t give a shit about figure skating. Or most of the winter olympics, for that matter. But having lived in South Korea for a year I was glad to see this chick win a gold medal. Again, not cause I give a fuck, but you cannot even begin to imagine the kind of pressure she was under to win. They talk about it in the media, the commentators mention it during her programs, but all the talk falls way, way flat in trying to understand how much was riding on Kim Yu Na. She sells everything In Korea, her face is everywhere. People talk about her constantly. Had she lost the whole country would have deflated and crashed. Did I mention she was under a lot of pressure? Cause you still don’t get it. Not even close. Anything less than a gold and they would have handed her a luggage cart the second she stepped off the plane at Incheon and sent her out to the tarmac to work. Forever. That kind of pressure would have collapsed most people’s o-rings.
Yes, I know, “Go USA!” and all, but in this instance I’m glad to see another country get the nod.
[video]
Next month I’m going to Honduras for a couple of weeks to see my friend Julie. She was the only person who can to visit while I was in Korea, so it’s only fair I return the favor.
We’re gonna go to Copan and see Mayan ruins. Check out some shit on the north coast, hopefully a Garifuna village. Then hopefully go to Guanaja to sit on a beach and drink all their beer. Of course, all of this will not go to plan and we’ll miss something or go some where we hadn’t planned on. But that’s the fun of things, isn’t it?
Whatever the case, I’m sure I’ll come home having once again reaffirmed my stance that Julie and I shouldn’t be in the same country for too long lest we descend into a constant blind-drunk stupor as we are wont to do when put together.
Just the sound makes me salivate.
Cool Blog. I know Caitlin will find this particularly mouth watering.
